In the 16 years since the end of apartheid, South Africa has followed the prescriptions of the West, opening its market-based economy to trade, while keeping inflation and public debt in check. It has won praise for its efforts, and the economy has grown, but not nearly fast enough to end an intractable unemployment crisis.
For over a decade, the jobless rate has been among the highest in the world, fueling crime, inequality and social unrest in the continent’s richest nation. The global economic downturn has made the problem much worse, wiping out more than a million jobs. Over a third of South Africa’s workforce is now idle. And 16 years after Nelson Mandela led the country to black majority rule, more than half of blacks ages 15 to 34 are without work — triple the level for whites.
“The numbers are mind-boggling,” said James Levinsohn, a Yale University economist.
As the debate about unemployment intensifies, the government’s failure to produce a plan 16 months after President Jacob Zuma took office promising decent jobs has led analysts to question his leadership, though he has promised to act soon.
Experts debate the causes of the country’s gravest economic problem, with some contending that higher wages negotiated by politically powerful trade unions have suppressed job growth.
MINIMUM WAGES HURT THE POOREST PEOPLE MOST.
FREE MARKETS AND GLOBALIZATION HELP THE POOREST PEOPLE THE MOST.
THE SOCIALIST ANC SHOULD GET OUT OF THE WAY AND LET SOUTH AFRICA GET DEVELOPED THE WAY EVERY OTHER NATION DID.
IOW: IF YOU REALLY WANT TO MAKE POVERTY HISTORY, THEN YOU HAVE TO MAKE LEFTISM HISTORY.
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